The World Is Unfair
by DaiHelsing
Summary: A Terminator: Salvation based story. How it really was with Marcus' heart? A 16-years-old daughter of John and Kate, Sarah Connor, wants to change the past and the future. She decides to share her plan with her friend and protector, Marcus Wright. R&R!
1. Chapter 1

_Hello everyone. Here comes my fanfiction:]. If anyone wants to know one of my theories about Marcus' heart, read this story. Read & Review, please. _

_Bear in mind that English is my second language (I'm Polish) and don't laugh at mistakes I could have made. _

~*~

"The world is unfair."

Sarah put her hands in the pockets of her gray ranger trousers and looked under her legs because there was a hole in the concrete curb she was walking on. She jumped deftly about it and went on. She raised her head and rolled her eyes in the general direction of rain clouds hanging low above them. It surely was going to rain and she hoped that they would return to the base before first heavy drops fell down. She looked trough her red asymmetric fringe at Marcus who was walking next to her. He said nothing.

"The world is unfair," she repeated, looking at him expectantly.

"Sure it is," he said after a short moment of silence, smiling with one corner of his mouth slightly raised higher than the other. "Instead of taking care of important matters, I'm taking care of you."

"Hey!" She snorted, pretending to be insulted. If she stretched her arm, she could have slapped his back but she decided not to. He wasn't serious. He was just chaffing her like always. She quickened her pace, jumped on the ground and run down damaged stairs on the small square. If she had looked at her companion, she would have seen that he sat on the bottom step of the stairs like he did it always when they were here.

Sarah crossed the square and moved in the direction of the wreck of a helicopter. She stopped near the machine and squatted down among high grass to move her fingers across the granite tombstone.

"Hi, dad," she said silently, staring at the carved inscription. _John Connor, 02.28.1985 – 07.04.2032. For the glorious future. The Resistance. _She sat cross-legged on the ground in front of the dark tombstone and put her finger against the letter N, starting to draw its thick, angular shape. "It will have been sixteen years tomorrow since you died. Tomorrow mum, JJ, your soldiers, they all are going to visit you here. I'm earlier like always." She smiled. "Every year I have the same thoughts, you know? The world is unfair. Your soldiers think that you died fighting a terminator. They don't know the truth. But if they did… I think it wouldn't change anything. You were a hero for them, a brother in arms, you always fought, never gave up, you were tough, brave, fearless… It's unfair that you were killed by a heart attack. The world is unfair."

She started to draw the shape of O. She was close to start crying.

"I wish I had met you, dad. Why didn't you stay with us seven days longer?..." She sniffed. "It was just stupid seven days longer, daddy… Why did you die?..."

She burst into tears. It started to rain and she thought that the sky was crying with her. Suddenly she heard footsteps behind her and thick warm coat covered her shoulders. Marcus was standing behind her. Just a centimeter and she could have leaned against his legs.

"Let's go," he said mildly. She nodded, getting up.

They moved to the stairs. She didn't even know when she took him by the hand. They walked among some buildings in ruins and Marcus pulled her in the direction of the closest one. After a while they were inside.

She put her arms in too long and too wide sleeves and wrapped herself in Marcus' coat. She sat on a pile of rubble and wiped her wet eyes and face. She heard her companion walking to and fro across the room which had been a hair salon once. Finally he sat with his legs crossed on the dirty floor next to a broken window. She looked at him. He was staring at the rainy world outside. She sniffed.

"I'm listening to you," he said silently. She nodded.

If it hadn't been for Marcus Wright, she didn't know how her life would have been like. She was born a week after John's death. Kate couldn't have reconciled herself to his death. Nor did his firstborn son, John Junior, who had been five at that time. The Resistance lost their leader and chaos reigned. The machines decided to grab an opportunity and they attacked. And then Marcus turned up. The mysterious newcomer quickly won John's soldiers over. They went with him and fought. They won the battle but they found out who Marcus really was. His secret came to light when he had saved Kate and little Sarah from a terminator. A terminator that he defeated with bare hands. After that it was Kate who came to his defense and he joined the Resistance. A machine with a human brain, an outcome of some mad experiment left in the basement of the SKYNET's lab and faded into oblivion suddenly woke up to be together with human beings.

Marcus always thought about himself as a real human but it was only his brain that was real. He was strong, fast, resilient. He didn't have to eat and drink, he didn't feel cold nor hot and first of all he did not grow old, he had been looking the same since Sarah was a child. The world was changing, he was not. And she liked him for that the most.

"Speak your mind, Sarah," he encouraged her.

"You believe that if somebody in the first _version_ was killed by a gun, he or she will be killed in every another version in the same way?"

She knew how much time that man – yes, _a man_, for her Marcus was a man, not a cyborg like he was for some people – devoted to understand the structure of time. He sighed and leaned his head against the wall behind him. For a moment she could see the sharp line of his masculine jaw.

"Every year we have the same conversation, Sarah," he said with a serious tone in his voice. "But you are smarter with every year. You know my theory well. Yes, if we suppose that _this_ now is the first version of our story and your father died because of a heart attack, his heart will be the cause of his death in every another version."

She bit her lower lip, listening to the sound of rain outside.

"I have been thinking about all of _this_", she confessed. "My dad needs a new heart, 'coz the old one will sooner or later break down, doesn't he?"

Marcus nodded. Suddenly a cat jumped through a broken window. It was small and ginger-striped. The kitten shook his wet fur, came closer to Marcus and brushed against his knee. He took the kitten softly and put it on his thigh to pet with his big, heavy hand. The animal closed its golden eyes, purring loudly.

"I know what we have to do." Sarah got up and her protector looked at her. The girl walked across the room in Marcus' coat. Her quick movements scared the cat and Marcus held it because it wanted to run away. John's daughter sat on the floor in front of her friend and she petted the kitten.

"You're the most important element of my plan", she said to him.

"Do I have to be afraid of your plan?" he asked with one of those smiles she simply adored the most. She touched his left breast. He looked down at her hand. "Forget my question. Now I'm really afraid of your plan."

For a moment they were sitting in silence. His chest was _empty. Silent _like always. She patted his muscular torso and stood up. It wasn't raining anymore, so she went outside.

Without thinking she stepped with her heavy army boots into a deep puddle and stared at her shoelaces floating on its dark surface.

"You're such a weirdo today." Marcus bent down and put the cat on the ground. It meowed sadly probably wanting more petting.

"Thank you. I'm doing my best I hope." She smiled. "Are we going back home? I have a lot to do."

"Are you going to give me my coat back?"

"You don't need it."

"But I like it."

"I'll think 'bout it." She flashed a rakish smile at him.


	2. Chapter 2

It was close to 2am when Sarah decided to tell Marcus about her plan. She got up and looked at her sleeping mother. She put her shoes and a leather jacket on and left the room, closing the door behind her. She saw her brother JJ sitting in front of a computer screen. He looked at her with tired eyes.

"Where are you going, sis?"

"To find Marcus."

"It's a middle of the night."

"Yeah. But it's something important."

"If you say so," he snorted before she went outside.

She stretched herself while entering the hangar. The main gate was open and she saw that it was raining again.

"Marcus?" she shouted, squinting in the darkness. She saw the outlines of heavy army equipment and helicopters.

"You lost your baby-sitter, Connor?" She heard a man's voice and some people laughing. They must have been the pilots who didn't like to leave their flying machines even for a moment. She ignored them, going between helicopters and the Predator plane to leave the building.

"Marcus?" She was outside on the rain and saw the lights in the next warehouse. She moved across a concrete landing field but she stopped after a moment. Drops on her face were warm. She smiled and lifted her head to feel the rain on her cheeks. She loved this beautiful and fucking unfair world.

"You _really _are a weirdo nowadays," she heard and felt familiar weight of Marcus' coat on her shoulders.

"I'm just happy, 'coz I know what to do. 'Coz I know what I _am _doing."

"Who are you sending back in time in your newest plan?" She could hear an irony in his question.

"I'm sending you if I can say so." She smiled. "You said that I had grown wiser. I want to prove that you were right." She touched the coat on her arm. "Let's go inside."

"Done. You've just proved that you grew wiser." He smiled when they moved towards the hangar.

She hung the coat on the Predator's nose and with a Marcus' help climbed on the plane's wing. She wringed her long hair and put them on her back. She sat cross-legged beside Marcus. He was sitting in the same manner and she thought about herself copying his behavior since she was a child. Their knees were touching each other.

"Only three people should know," she said. "You, me and Serena, okay? You won't tell anyone, will you?"

"Serena Kogen?" he asked silently. She nodded, plucking a hole in her ranger trousers.

"I want to send her back in time. She has cancer and we have all of these advanced technologies, machines et cetera but only to fight. We know how to stitch a wound in hundreds different ways but to cure cancer or a malfunctioning heart?..." She felt silent. "Serena will join the Cyberdyne Systems' genetic team in 2002 and maybe she will be able to help herself. In 2003 she will join the Angel Project and create you. She will make sure that you have a heart. The heart you don't need. The heart for my dad. Serena will program you to find us. So we'll meet again."

Sarah was smiling for a moment but she quickly became serious.

"You said once that you had deserved to die and on what they had done to you after you had killed those people in your time. And… I thought that you were the only person who could _take care_ of my dad's new heart and…"

"Don't change my fate," he interrupted. "I'll _take care_ of that heart."

"Thanks, Marcus."

She took him by the hand and sat differently to wave her legs in the air. They were sitting in silence for a while.

"Tomorrow we'll start up the time machine to send Serena back in time. She has already swallowed my _message. _I made a video."

"You did grow wiser."

"Oh really?" She smiled widely, meeting his gaze. Marcus released her hand and stood up to jump off the wing.

"Come on, Sarah." She looked down. He stretched his strong arms and caught her when she slid down from the wing. He put her on the ground and took his coat. "I'll walk you home."

She nodded but kept wondering why he didn't want to talk with her about the plan. Didn't he have any questions? What was he thinking?

"The world is unfair," she heard. His voice sounded strange.

"Hey, you think so?" she smiled at him. "You don't have to sleep, eat. You don't feel hot and cold. And you do _not _grow older. You will be always such a hottie. You…"

"Shut up!" he shouted at her, stopping. She stopped too and looked at him curiously.

Suddenly he touched her arm and after a moment her neck. She felt his hard thumb against her skin. He frowned.

"The world is fucking unfair! I wish I could sleep, be tired, have dreams and nightmares, eat fresh fruits and drink cold water! I wish I could feel coldness of snow and warm breeze of air in summer and rain on my skin… and touch of your hands! But I wish the most I could grow old with you!"

She was staring at him. After a moment she understood his last wish. He didn't want to have wrinkles, silver hair and become infirm. He wanted to be with her like a man wants to be with the woman he loves. She thought about him being for her like a father, then a protector, a _baby-sitter, _a friend. Who was he for her right now?...

Sarah came closer to Marcus and he embraced her with his strong arms. She pressed her ear against his chest. The chest without a heart inside. If there had been a heart, it would have been beating for her surely. She started to cry, thinking that maybe the world wasn't so unfair. She was alive, her mom and brother safe and sound, the Resistance was strong and the machines were losing the war. And she had Marcus. She hugged him even stronger.

"Don't wrinkle my coat," he said. She laughed with her eyes misted up.


	3. Chapter 3

*******

Kate Connor's hands were shaking when she was cutting a synthetic skin on Marcus Wright's chest. He was conscious because she didn't know who to anaesthetize him. He was staring at the scalpel between her trembling fingers. She put the skin away and saw rivets on his endoskeleton. With her assistants' help she removed all of them from the man's chest and took the shining flap off. Under the metal flap there was a transparent plastic one and she could see a beating heart underneath.

She trembled and touched her swollen belly subconsciously. She looked at anaesthetized John laying next to Marcus and then at Marcus' heart and the plastic flap again. Suddenly she saw a small black rectangle stuck to the flap. She took it with a tweezers.

"It's a memory card I guess," she heard Marcus' calm voice. "We had them in mobile phones and digital cameras."

Sarah nodded nervously.

"Check it."

An assistant took the card. "There is a video file," he said, sitting in front of a computer.

"Play it."

She looked at the screen. Marcus sat and the metal table squeaked under in half-naked body. They saw a young face of a pretty red head.

"_Hi, mom. It's me, your Sarah. I don't know if I have been already born or not in your time." _She smiled, brushing her way too long fringe aside from her bright eyes. "_If the answer is yes, have a glance at how pretty you daughter will be at the age of sixteen. If not, you should know that sooner or later you will have such a pretty girl like me. But that's not my point. If you're watching this, Marcus did find you, 'coz Serena had done her best with her part of my plan. Marcus has a heart for dad. A strong heart that will not malfunction. Marcus doesn't need it. And it is not even his, 'coz he had a different blood type than dad's. Mom, save dad, please, 'coz I want to meet him. And give Marcus a kiss from me, 'coz I'm still way too shy to do it on my own. I love you."_

The video ended and the screen blackened.

"Lie down, Marcus," Kate said. Her hands were not shaking anymore. She wasn't scared.

"What about _that _kiss?" he asked smiling.

*******

When John regained consciousness he could feel a heart beating in his chest. He looked around and saw Marcus who was sitting perfectly motionless beside Blair. He wished he had thanked him. But then Blair touched Wright's arm and the man moved his head.

"It's weird without a heart, isn't it?" she asked.

"I'll get used to it," he smiled and looked at John.

Connor bowed his head a little bit and Marcus returned the same gesture.

"Kate," John spoke with a husky voice.

"I'm here, darling." She leaned and kissed his forehead. "And you're here with me. Forever."

**10 YEARS LATER**

John walked across an arsenal and entered the hangar. He was saluted by a few soldiers and went to the workshop where helicopters were being repaired. He looked around and saw Marcus.

"Where is Sarah?" he asked.

"She's sleeping." Marcus with a slight head movement showed him the nearest helicopter.

Connor moved closer to the machine and looked inside to see his daughter curled into a ball on a seat. Beside her there was a ginger kitten sleeping. He took his child and hugged her against his chest. She was so lightweight and small.

"Thanks," he said to Marcus.

"Anytime."

John went outside the hangar. Sarah moved slightly in his arms and opened her eyes.

"Daddy?... Where's Marcus?"

"He's working."

"What about Sam?"

"Who's Sam?"

"The kitten Marcus found and brought here."

"It stayed in the helicopter."

"No, dad! Let's go back and take Sam! I want Sam! Let's go back to Marcus! Daddy, please!"

John looked at his daughter. She was close to start crying and he hated when she was sad and or crying. So he went back to the workshop.

"Marcus!" she shouted. "Where's Sam?"

"He's just woken up." Marcus gave the fluffy kitten to Sarah and she hugged it softly.

"What are we going to do with Sam?" the girl asked.

"We can give him to old Bill from the monitoring team." Marcus winked to Sarah.

She nodded and looked at John.

"Can we, daddy? Can we do it now?"

"I think you can." He passed Sarah to Marcus and the other man hugged the girl against his chest in the same way John had done before.

"Thanks, daddy. I love you so much."

"I love you too." He smiled, looking at Marcus leaving the room with Sarah in his arms. He said something and John's daughter started to laugh.

Sarah had been Marcus' since the heart operation so long before she was born. John understood that. He loved his daughter and he knew he was still alive because of her plan. Marcus loved Sarah too. Connor didn't think about the girl's future. He didn't know if Sarah was going to love Marcus as strong as the man loved her. Would she be happy knowing that Marcus was an immortal cyborg?... But right now he knew that Sarah was fascinated with Marcus' heart beating inside his father's chest. She didn't understand yet how it was possible although she heard the story many times. Of course they didn't tell her about her _future _version who asked Kate to kiss Marcus.

**THE END**

_And what do you think? Reviews, please:*._


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